Event Coverage

HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2014: Editor's Choice - Part 2

Innovation Awards

Innovation Awards

Four Innovation awards were also given out this year, with the aim of recognizing innovative products and cutting-edge technologies that have emerged during the eligibility period. The inaugural winners are HGST, Intel, Olympus, and Sony.

 

HGST - Ultrastar He6 6TB HDD

Solid state drives may be much faster than traditional mechanical hard disk drives, but SSDs still have some ways to go if it wants to compete with the cost and capacity that hard disk drives offer, especially now that HGST has a developed a new 6TB drive called the Ultrastar He6.

One of the biggest challenges that hard disk drives face has to do with turbulence and resistance. Typically, hard disk drives aren’t sealed but have filters to keep contaminants out of the drive. Air is allowed into the drives and it is this air which causes turbulence when the platters spin, this affects the platters as they need to be thick enough to withstand the turbulence. Not only that, air creates resistance too, which in turn limits the maximum RPM the drive can spin.

To overcome these problems, the Ultrastar He6 has a hermetically sealed chassis which doesn’t let air in. Additionally, air inside the drive is replaced with helium gas, which is seven times less dense than air. This reduces resistance and turbulence, effectively allowing Hitachi to fit more platters in the drive; up to seven in fact to achieve a total capacity of 6TB.

Additional Read: News & Price Announcement.


 

Intel - 4th Generation Core Processors

Intel’s fourth generation  Core processors (Haswell) are all about one thing: battery life. So while Haswell also saw improved benchmark performance, it’s Intel’s efforts at reducing power consumption and increasing power efficiency which lands Haswell our innovation award.

The use of tri-gate transistors and design improvements on the chipset have resulted in reduced power consumption compared to Intel’s third generation Ivy Bridge processors. As a result, low-power devices like Ultrabooks have seen massive gains in battery life. Apple’s 2013 MacBook Air - one of the first computers to utilize Haswell - gets close to double the battery life of the 2012 model. Haswell also lets notebooks remain in standby mode for longer, with Windows 8 Ultrabooks easily capable of remaining in sleep mode for more than seven days without needing a recharge. This is what Ultrabooks were always meant to be - and it’s only now with Haswell that that’s finally possible. With these capabilities, Intel's fourth Generation Core processors have also brought about a new breed of ultraportable gaming notebooks.

Additional Read: Haswell's Singapore Launch, Integrated Graphics in Haswell.


 

Olympus - OM-D E-M1

Mirrorless cameras are inching closer and closer to DSLR-like performance, and nowhere is that better embodied than in the Olympus OM-D E-M1. The flagship camera comes with a new hybrid AF (autofocus) which mixes the phase and contrast detection AF systems found in DSLR and mirrorless cameras. This provides significantly improved continuous and tracking AF, which have been the weakness of mirrorless cameras.

The body itself is weather-resistant, and it comes with a luxurious electronic viewfinder which compares favorably to the best optical viewfinders around. You may have thought that mirrorless cameras were only for hobbyists, but try the E-M1 and we think you’ll have a change of mind.

Additional Read: Hands-on with the Olympus OM-D E-M1 DSLR Killer.


 

Sony - Alpha A7 Series

The Alpha 7 series is perhaps Sony’s most ambitious camera range yet, and it realizes a grand dream for digital photographers: large full-frame sensors in relatively compact bodies. If Sony had just released the A7 with its 24MP sensor that would already have been a sensation, but Sony also released the A7R with a whopping 36MP sensor which ignited a storm.

Both cameras push the state of the art forward for mirrorless cameras and fire a clear shot across the bow for DSLRs - larger APS-C DSLR cameras today actually have smaller sensors inside than the smaller Alpha 7 series. It’s still early days - the new full-frame mirrorless series only has two lenses - but it’s exciting early days indeed.

Additional Read: Sony A7R 36MP Full-frame Compact Mirrorless Camera Review.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.